as told by a social media opportunist

Month: February 2016

As we come to the end of this series, there is one final platform I’d like to address: Tumblr. Born in 2007, Tumblr’s popularity has only increased over the past nine years. In fact as of 2013, 120,000 new blogs were being posted every day.

Marketing on Tumblr isn’t going to work for every business, however. The most common types of businesses that seek attention from Tumblr are the fashion industry, large websites, and publishing/broadcasting media due to Tumblr’s set up being more visual, more photo based, than word based.

Companies such as the Boston Globe, CNET, Elle Magazine, Glamour, the Huffington Post, IBM, J. Crew, and Vimeo are all making a big splash on Tumblr, according to the Social Media Examiner. But what are they doing that’s so great?

As with any social media site, you need to figure out who your audience is. You need to be able to target them and appeal to them.

But first? You need to come up with an excellent, and oftentimes witty, Tumblr username.

Next, you need to find your ‘niche’ and focus on it. Not everything on Tumblr needs to be funny. You may even stand out if you stray from the norm.

First impressions are everything, and they happen in a matter of seconds. In fact, in the first 30 seconds of a job interview, the employer has generally also decided whether or not they like you. 30 seconds to sell yourself. 30 seconds.

That sounds short, right? So what if I told you that you had to sell yourself in SIX seconds? Could you do it? That’s just what marketers on Vine have to do. Vine is a social media site that allows the user to post 6-second videos. Six. Seconds. How do you get someone to listen in a period of time that you can hardly say your name and title?

It can be done, just like it can be done in 140 characters, but it’s hard and I don’t think many brands have the formula yet. – Thomas Messett

Messett is the head of digital marketing for Nokia Europe. Even though it’s possible, like all things there are some essential tips / rules to follow, according to Social Times on Ad Week, such :

Lead By Example. Using humor and science is one way to really draw in attention. Everyone loves to laugh, and everyone loves to be mind-blown. So use these two as part of your algorithm to success.

Use those six seconds to anchor your video to a more cultural or narrative reference point

When it comes to marketing on social media, most sites will welcome you with open domains. They want the extra attention and publicity. Reddit, however, is a different beast.

Redditors overwhelmingly hate marketing in (almost) all its forms, and are suspicious of any sort of sales pitch. They also happen to be extremely good at skewering any of your advertising efforts, especially if they can tell that you’re being fake or lying. Sometimes they just happen to hate your company regardless.

First and foremost, Rohit Thawani, director of digital strategy at TBWA, gave this little golden nugget of motivation:

The truth is, most brands and marketers are doing Reddit in a fucked-up, horrible way.

Ad Age continues with Thawani’s theory and explains that, “If you’re a brand that’s scared of questions that hint at any weakness…or unwilling to follow up on outstanding questions, just don’t make an appearance.”

Reddit already sounds a little more intimidating, doesn’t it? See when you market on Twitter or Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, people who look at / watch your stuff or follow you are interested in your company and what your company has to offer. Reddit users are scrolling for the latest funny meme, and oftentimes news, but they aren’t looking to be advertised to. That’s why you have to be sneaky, clever. If they can tell you’re out right showing off your brand, you may only be hurting yourself because your company will be associated with annoyance to these users.

You see, the trick to reddit marketing is, well, to not market. – Travis Levell

Levell has been successful with Reddit marketing, and has devoted time to explain the do’s and don’ts. First, he says, “In order to be successful with reddit marketing, you can’t be a marketer. You have to be a redditor.” Sure, makes sense…but does it? What does that even mean? Levell says it means to share the passions of the Reddit family. Share their hatred for advertisement and self-promotion.

So what did he start doing? He started designing content that would fit well among the vast memes and links being shared every hour, and then he would carry on like any other user: posting cool links and up-voting other posts.

It’s important, according to Levell, to follow a few rules when it comes to marketing on Reddit:

No double dipping, i.e. don’t advertise for the same product twice (at least when it would be obvious)

Only post great content

Have fun

Comment and reply to everyone

Share new posts with friends

Be humble

It’s a jungle out there, but it’s a fun one. Let’s explore it together, shall we?

I’ve spent a lot of time illustrating ways to relate to your varying types of audiences, whether that be on Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, or Facebook. But what about your professional audience? That’s where LinkedIn comes into play.

With the average household income per user hitting $109,000, which is much higher than Twitter, Facebook, and the other social networking power houses, you know you are dealing with people who mean business. – Lewis Howes

Lewis Howes feels that LinkedIn is #1 when it comes to choosing a site to market, and he wants to make sure we know just how to make as big [and professional] of a splash as we can.

Howes recommends making your profile complete and professional. Making sure our profiles are 100% filled out is essential, or as Howes puts it, sexy. When marketing and branding online, your profile page is going to be one of, if not the, first thing that’s noticed. If it’s not well put-together, you can kiss a good portion of your audience good-bye.

Connect. With. Everyone. We’re always warned about stranger-danger on social media, but this is an exception. Connecting with random people on LinkedIn provides you with the opportunity to reach their connections, and their connections’ connections. The list is endless, and you never know just whom you may find.

Howes also stresses the importance of being compelling. LinkedIn is not the most eye-catching, aesthetically-pleasing site to browse, so you want to stand out. And if your profile is compelling? You will.

Business News Daily suggests giving your employees a face – i.e. having them all make their own LinkedIn accounts to be easily accessible as well. Joining LinkedIn groups and even creating your own is another great way to be noticed and to notice others.

The site claims that LinkedIn is a numbers game, and provides an explanation by Greg Taylor, Telecom Law Attorney.

I have learned that LinkedIn marketing is more science, less art. In other words, it’s a numbers game. I know that each Wednesday, I’ll touch at least 2,000 C-level executives. These touches will lead to about six responses, and two of those six will become clients. Instead of attending trade conferences, exhibiting and speaking at a cost of approximately $10,000 per conference, I have built my own practice for less than $1,000 a year for marketing, $250 of which goes to LinkedIn for a Premium account. I can afford a few hours each week of my time more than I want to swallow the $40,000-per-year pill that I know most of my colleagues spend, attending an average of four conferences each year. – Greg Taylor

If you haven’t noticed through this past week’s series, there are so many different kinds of opportunities when it comes to online and social media marketing. The difference between the rest and LinkedIn, however, is that these people mean business. They aren’t there to tell funny jokes or sad stories, or complain about the rain and snow; they’re there to make their own splash, and they may just come splashing through your puddle.

As a millennial, I no doubt use Snapchat regularly. There are very few of you who do not know what this wildly explosive and popular program is. Snapchat is different from other social media sites; you cannot write infinite amounts of information, information is not displayed for longer than 10 seconds total, and posted information such as photos or videos are not saved on a “profile” like most accounts. With Snapchat, a photo or video is sent to a specific group of people or can be posted on your story, however it does not remain there indefinitely. Snapchat is also not a site you can login to on your desktop or web browser. It is an app that is designed to be downloaded on mobile devices.

So how can we market on something that inevitably disappears?

Well, as Snapchat popularity is rising at a wild speed, sources are beginning to establish ways that a company could take advantage of this success and indulge in a little success of their own.

Well renowned business and finance site Forbes encourages marketers to understand the use of the app, the casual essence of it. People typically don’t use Snapchat to document professional aspects of their lives. The most typical things you’ll see are food, pets, and selfies (that’s definitely what mine consists of). So going forward, you need to understand its basic concepts and uses.

Forbes also encourages utilizing Snapchat’s time restriction for your benefit; tease your audience with trailers and the like; leave them wanting more. This draws them in, grabs their attention.

The majority of Snapchat’s users (71%) are between the ages of 18-34, and get this: with over 100 million users on this rapidly growing app, 400 million snaps are sent per day (we all know that one person who probably contributes to a fair portion of that amount).

The Social Media Examiner recommends providing access to live events. This is a huge benefit of one of Snapchat’s latest features: stories. While the duration per snap cannot exceed 10 seconds, the story itself can consist of as many snaps are you want and can be watched repeatedly for a maximum of 24 hours.

Live events often trend on Snapchat, such as the 2016 Presidential Campaign caucuses that are ongoing and shows such as the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Follow their lead! Document your events! Similarly, taking people “behind the curtain” really grabs their attention. For example, during the Grammy’s and shows alike, we get up-close videos from celebrities and stars that we follow. It personalizes them in a way we haven’t really seen thus far with social media.

It’s still developing, but over the past few years Snapchat has really blown up to become one of the most widely used social media sites. I would suggest adding this to your array of platforms, and have fun with it! I know it’s personally my favorite form of social media to use. It’s unique, and it’s such a blast. It allows for creativity in a way other sites/apps don’t, and I love that.

Let’s keep the trend rolling, shall we? There’s another platform I’d like to discuss that is valuable for social media marketing, however it’s not really one you would have thought of.

Pinterest.

How many of us spend our late nights scrolling through this wildly addictive site rather than catching some Zzz’s? If you’re a woman ages 12-99 the chances are you’re guilty of this. If you’re a man who scrolls through Pinterest, well, I am impressed by you.

But how can we market on Pinterest? There’s actually more tips on this than you would expect. In fact, Copy Blogger gives 56 ways!

The post explains that part of the appeal of Pinterest is the beautiful layout of the site (which should show you that design really does matter! In yesterday’s YouTube YourSelf post I mentioned decorating your channel to be a ‘destination location’ — it really makes a difference!)

Some tips to market on this lovely pinboard include posting your brand name and a paragraph about you and/or your company. While this seems obvious, it is still essential to mention. Adding to the seemingly-obvious tips that you may overlook: add your URL! Make sure Pinterest surfers can make their way out of their creative haze to your website in a single click.

Comment. Comment comment comment.

First of all, everyone loves feedback. Everyone likes to know if they’re being well-received. Additionally, users will be so excited you commented they will often click on your username and make their way to your page to check it out. If that page has become a ‘destination location’ and your company’s information is all posted? You’re in.

As you become more experienced with Pinterest, Copy Blogger suggests sharing your pins on your WordPress account. They also suggest creating a board that tells the story of your company and discusses your values. When you hear a “how we got our start” story, it gives the impression of starting from nothing and making it to the big leagues — and who doesn’t love a true underdog story?

The Social Media Examiner also noticed Pinterest’s potential. They suggest intermingling your accounts as well – tweet about your Pinterest account 2-3 times a week, share it on Facebook at least once every 1-2 weeks. This ties back to what we’ve discussed more than once over the past few weeks: you need to have social media accounts all across the board. Each account has the potential to reach a different audience.

When it comes to trying to reach an audience, there’s a lot of competition. However, another platform that reaches a mind-blowing amount of people each day is YouTube. Take a look at these statistics, and if they don’t blow your mind then you’re far too hard to impress:

As of 2011, video-viewing had gone up 35% from the previous year. Can you imagine what that number is now?

On average, a video that is shared via tweet generates six new views of that video: there are nearly 500 videos shared via tweet per minute – 3,000 new views every sixty seconds!

Those numbers are mind boggling! There are millions upon millions of people using YouTube on a daily basis. While that allows for a wider potential audience, it also increases the probability that your video will get lost among the cat videos (there are over two million of these, with more than 25 billion views…I am not kidding) is rather high. The way around this? Make yourself stand out.

One of the biggest issues new YouTube marketers run into is their desire to become viral. According to the Marketing Donut, YouTube allows for a unique opportunity to appeal directly to your customer base, rather than an international audience that your brand does not appeal towards. Luke Clum feels that the harder you try to make a viral video, the less authentic it is going to feel for you customers.

Once we surpass this major issue, how is YouTube so helpful and why should you take the time to market on its vast platform?

When I think of advertising, the very first thought that comes to my mind is television commercials. While advertising takes place across the board, TV ads are among the most popular – or at least they used to be. In 2011 when internet video usage jumped 35%, television viewing only increased by 0.2%.

Think of Jimmy Fallon‘s the Tonight Show for instance. Wildly popular. Clips from his show are also among the top videos on YouTube. I personally don’t sit at my TV and watch an entire episode; I prefer to watch the funny clips on YouTube. In doing that, I am missing all of the commercials and advertisements I would see if I had watched it (unless, of course, it’s been DVR’ed and the commercials are being fast-forwarded through – but that’s another problem for another time). The internet is taking over, and it’s wise to get ahead or at least get on board. Your revenues will thank you.

Don’t overlook the fact that Google owns YouTube – make your videos findable! Having your video pop up on Google’s search engine page is a great way to leap ahead of your competition. You can do this by focusing on the title, description, and tags. To find out the specifics, check it out here!

Those are only a few among the vast suggestions provided. I mentioned this a few weeks ago: make yourself active on all types of platforms! You want to reach as many people as possible, and not everyone is using the same form of social media.